Here’s the latest update on DeeDee Jonrowe. She is presently in 10th place, now with 12 dogs left. She has taken her 24 hour layover and is … running with the big dogs, from the Anvik checkpoint up the Yukon river. This is the long leg which makes the difference when the Iditarod takes the Southern route. The leaders are now about 65% of the way through the 1,049 mile trek. Among the lead group are past champions Lance Mackey, Martin Buser, and Rick Swenson, with about 5 hours separating them on the snow. (DeeDee has finished second twice and in the top ten 17 times; after her talk to Aperio a few weeks ago she was asked “what does it take to win”? She replied “if I knew that, I wouldn’t have finished second twice” :)

The conditions have “worsened”, with colder weather, snow, and softer snow. From what I’ve read, all of this is good for DeeDee! For what it’s worth, her average speed since the last checkpoint is the highest of anyone in the lead group. This is the point in the race where wear and tear of hundreds of miles start becoming evident, and the strong teams keep moving ahead. The picture at left shows DeeDee putting [pink!] booties on her dogs at a checkpoint.

By the way, you might have heard about the huge earthquake in Japan and consequent tsunami warnings all around the Pacific Rim, apparently Norton Sound is on alert but it is not expected to affect on the race.

Here’s the current standings; stay tuned for more … cheers and go DeeDee!